Ella’s POV
I rubbed my belly, feeling full. I had missed roasted food. The fishes we caught were much that it was a surprise to us.
“Who could have known that such a small river would have many fishes resting in it?” Loki smiled, chewing his sixth fish.
I smiled and nodded at him in response, showing him I was thinking of the same thing. I had had my bath and loved how fresh and neat my skin felt. I was in bliss, feeling neat and satiated.
I would like to sleep now but I knew that wasn’t possible. I knew Kevin would want us to move quickly so we can cover more grounds while it was still daylight.
“Are you all full?” Kevin asked.
I smiled to myself, knowing what he wanted to say. He could be so predictable at times it was amusing.
“Yes.” We all replied.
“Let’s take a break for one hour and leave.” Kevin said.
I was shocked, as were his men. We had spent two hours with making breakfast and I thought he would be pissed that we were wasting time.
He chuckled as he saw the expression on our faces. “Why are you all looking at me as if you saw a ghost?”
“Could that be because you acted as one? Unexpected.” I teased.
He arched his eyebrows in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“We all thought you would tell us to get up on our feet and get moving.” I explained.
He chuckled. “Oh no! I can’t possibly do that to you guys when you’ve just finished having your meal. That would be bad.”
“Thanks for your consideration.” I smiled.
“What do you want to do with your break?” He smiled, moving closer to me.
I didn’t hesitate before responding. “I want to sleep.”
He nodded but his expression was fallen. He seemed like he was waiting for something. I was too tired to be curious of what that was.
“Okay. You can sleep.” He patted me on the back, stood up and left.
An hour later, I moaned and stretched as I woke up. I was startled as I woke up and saw Kevin on his knees and smiling at me.
“What are you doing?” I blushed as I saw him.
“Looking at you while you sleep.” He smiled.
“Geez! That was…”
“What?” He interrupted me. “It was what? Creepy?”
“Never mind.” I said. It wasn’t creepy but I wasn’t going to say that it made my heart race. If I tell him that, he would never stop staring at me everytime I sleep till I was freaked out.
He grunted and stood up when he realized that I wasn’t going to say anything.
“Let’s go, guys. We have a long way to go.”
“Let me help you up.” Augusta said, moving closer to me.
“I can get up on my own.” I smiled at him, moving away from him. “Thank you.”
I was nervous and my heart beat faster as we moved closer to the mountains. I had bad experience with the first mountain and was scared of reliving the experience.
“You look pale.” Kevin said, slipping his hand into mine and looking at my face.
I squeezed his hand back, grateful for his presence. I didn’t know I had the fear on my mind. I knew he knew I could deal with it on my own and didn’t need him but I was grateful all the same.
I wasn’t afraid of passing through the mountain because of fear for myself but I was trying to avoid unfortunate incidences. All these men had come for me and I didn’t wish for any of them to not go back home.
“This is huge.” Damien whistled low as we got to the mountain.
I looked up at the mountain. It was just as expected. It was big and wide as the one we had jumped over earlier but didn’t look sloppy. We would be able to scale over this easily without having to shift.
I only hoped that there wasn’t any beast lurking around the corner and threatening to lock their teeth on us.
“We should be able to climb this mountain. It has edges that one can grab onto.” Kevin said, looking at all of us.
We all knew that already but didn’t say anything and let him take the lead as he wanted.
“Andre, Loki and Liam should climb first. The others should follow in batches of two. Ella and I will follow last.” He said.
The others bowed in acceptance and the first three started moving. I glanced at Kevin, waiting for him to say what was on his mind. There was a reason he wanted me to wait behind with him.
He didn’t say anything no matter how hard I stared at him and it wasn’t until the last batch of men had climbed up the mountain that he finally turned to me and spoke up.
“Are you fine?” He asked.
I arched my eyebrows at him in surprise, stunned to silence. Of all things that I had hoped he would say, that was the last thing on my mind.
“What made you ask?”
His face brightened up with a slow smile. “Why can’t you just answer?”
I rolled my eyes. “Can the two of us ever talk without having a bite to our words at times?” I guessed we were back to the old times now that I was out of the count’s clutch. This reminded me too much of when I was still Anna.
He smiled. “Isn’t that what makes it fun? Knowing we love each other with all the back and forth we do.”
I didn’t get a chance to talk as I heard Liam’s voice echo from the other side of the mountain.
“Are you two of you coming or not?” Liam shouted. “We don’t have all day.”
I smiled as I moved forward and begin climbing the mountain. “We can’t keep the men waiting for us for long, Kevin. Can we?”
He grunted as he climbed the mountain after me. “We really need to find a time to talk.”
I nodded without talking, knowing that he wouldn’t give up until he said his mind. Strangely in a way, I was looking forward to it.